Ask Lafeber

Suddenly Aggressive

Hi, I have a 10 month old male cockatiel, Pip. I’ve had him for 5 months, and he’s been super friendly, loves head scratches, goes everywhere around the house with me, has learned songs and whistles. If I’m home he’s out of the cage and with me until his bedtime. Suddenly, yesterday when I got home from work, we had the same routine, but he started flying at my head and face and attacking me, drawing blood. I tried putting him back in his cage for a time out, but he would fly away, so I decided to ignore him and give him space. This continued the rest of the evening, until it was his bedtime and I managed to put him to bed.

This morning it was the same thing. He was super aggressive, but I managed to put him back in his cage for time out. Normally if I’m home and he’s not out of his cage he yells and complains, but once he was back in his cage he had no problem with me continuing the morning routine without him.

What have I done to make my cockatiel so angry, and how do we go back to his normal friendly, affectionate self?

Hi,

This is definitely hormonal behavior, and with male cockatiels, the hormones can really turn their lives upside when they first experience them. Your bird seems to have formed a mate bond with you. This should be avoided – when you do handle him, limit any petting to only his head and neck. Avoid snuggling with him. Don’t let him have free roam – this mimic searching for a nest. Don’t let him get into dark cozy places, no boxes, no bird huts or tents. Right now it sounds like he has decided his cage is a nest and he is being territorial. Try moving the cage to another place in the room. Rearrange the toys. Don’t give him any paper or cardboard to shred. You might consider having a minimal wing trim – just enough to slow him down some. He is attacking you because he doesn’t want his “mate” to stray if this was a wild pair, he would force his mate back to the nest. They like a stable, safe place to nest, so by moving the cage and making changes, plus slowing him down, it can disrupt this notion of nesting and help with the hormones. We do offer free weekly webinars on Friday, and hormones are such an issue with pet birds that we focus on hormone topics for the month of March. So the first one is in two weeks. Other than making changes, just be patient with him because this is usually temporary and then he will settle back down.

https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/category/webinar/

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda